Superheroes Suck

Chapter 24: I'm Serious Wallflower

I was way too excited to be in school. It was scary how cheery I was as I waltzed down the hall, people were looking at me strangely. Probably because I looked so damn happy to be in school on a crummy Monday morning during my senior year.

It might also be because Murphy had half the town looking for me the other night and everyone has the general idea of what happened to me. Superheroes. Supervillains. Me. Trouble. People are beginning to see a pattern.

As I stopped off at my locker, I looked around for me best best friend. Penn's mother had actually dropped me off this morning. She explained that he woke up late and didn't want me to pay for his mistake, especially because he was the reason for all of my many tardies. The only problem is that we're always late and he has never cared about us being on time.

The office ladies usually gave a pass because we'd bring them snacks every once in awhile. Truthfully, we were marked late less than half of the time because of it. We were always late anyway, it's not like one more tardy would have mattered.

"NOVA!" It seemed Mary was also on time for once.

I spun on my heels toward the sound of her voice. She looked tired, her eyes closing a little as she sluggishly walked over to me. It seemed to be a case of the Monday blues, Mary was never too perky in the morning but Mondays were an all time low for her.

It seemed like her little outburst had all but tired her out. Her shoulders seemed a tad bit more sluggish than usual, but I chalked it up to her making an important decision regarding her future. That sort of thing weighs on you, no matter how light you feel when everything seems to click.

"How you feeling?" Mary nodded in response and slumped against the locker.

That wasn't really the response I was going for, vague acknowledgment of my existence, so I tried again. "Murphy and I had a...something."

Her eyes flung open, her back becoming rod-straight as she looked at me with total amazement. "A what?"

"A something..." I trailed off, unsure what my night with Murphy was.

"A what?"

"A something."

Her response to my vagueness was a glare."I get that you two had a...something. I want to know what 'a something' means."

I sighed, "I don't know what it meant."

She facepalmed, "Nova, I don't even know what happened. Therefore, I don't know what your night with Murphy meant."

"Neither do I."

"Before we can go into a whole 'girl-talk' session, I need to know the basics of what occurred between you and Murphy." Sometimes I forget people can't just flip back a few chapters for a quick recap or to get up to speed with the whole situation I'm having here. "We're getting absolutely nowhere, so I'm just going to try to guess. Did you...sleep with him."

"Almost," I admitted, momentarily forgetting the more nuanced meaning of sleeping with someone. I swear, sometimes I think I'm trying to send Mary to an early grave. Her eyes bugged out at my admission, so I quickly cleared up the mistake. "I meant I almost crashed at his place after we talked."

"Good. We're getting somewhere." The bell rang as she spoke. She picked her torn-up bag as I slung my backpack over my shoulder. "Give me the details on the way."

"Mary, we're not in the same class."

"Shut up, that's not convenient in this situation. Now talk." She growled back, so I filled her in as much as I could before we reached my classroom. Then she bolted, not wanting to be late for her own class.